A new railway operation timetable was reported to be running smoothly Sunday as China's Ministry of Railways accelerated for the fourth time the speed of trains.

Wu Qiang, vice-director of the transportation bureau under the ministry, said that the whole speed hike plan would be completed on Monday.

A total of 379 trains left their stations Saturday according to the new schedule. One such cut brings the travel time between Beijing and Shenzhen to 23 hours and 58 minutes from the original 29 hours and 49 minutes.

All trains left on schedule during the speed-up, he said.

There will be two more accelerations during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-05) period in order to build a fast railway transportation network linking major cities across the country.

China's first luxury train left for Shanghai from Beijing Sunday afternoon. Such trains are designed according to standards set for civil aviation, providing TVs, CD players, telephones, and bar service to passengers.

In Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, the new railway timetable enables 101 pairs of trains to operate between Guangzhou and Shenzhen from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday. The highest speed of the intercity train will reach 200 kilometers per hour. It takes only 55 minutes to go between the two cities.

The average speed of passenger trains to and from Beijing reached 75 kilometers an hour last year, up significantly from the 48 kilometers an hour in 1997.

( Xinhua News Agency 10/21/2001 )